By Amos Tauna:
An elder statesman, Ibrahim Mohammed Gashash, has decried the shortage of medical personnel in northern Nigeria.
Speaking as chairman at the 2018 graduation of Womenhood School of Health Sciences, Kaduna, Northwest of the country, Gashash noted that there was the urgent need for northerners, especially young girls to embrace the medical profession with a view to overcoming the phenomenon.
He enjoined northeners to embrace the opportunities abound in Womenhood School of Health Sciences to bridge the gap northerners are facing in the health sector by ensuring young boys and girls enroll in the school.
A Consultant Paediatrician with the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Dr Kudirat Ahmed said access to quality education is the most rewarding investment a country could make, assuring that the successes of any nation is hinged on intellectual and mind management of women.
In a paper titled: ‘Girl-Child Education: An Imperative To Development’, Dr Ahmed said education was one of the most critical areas of empowerment for women, adding that offering girls basic education is one sure way of giving them much greater power of enabling them make genuine choices over the kind of lives they wish to live.
She said education is a key part of strategies to improve individuals’ well-being and societies’ economic and social development, pointing out that as female education rises, fertility, population growth, infant and child mortality fall and family health improves in girls.
She explained that Nigeria needed to go beyond rhetoric and should involve in policies and programs with measurable results, stressing that government could start by making SDGs part of national development plans and monitoring progress toward those goals.
“Girls’ education does not only bring the immediate benefit of empowering girls, but is the best investment in a country’s development.
“Educated girls develop essential life skills, including self-confidence, the ability to participate effectively in society, and protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, sexual exploitation.
“Girl’s education also helps cutting children and maternal mortality rates, contributing to national wealth and controlling disease and health status. Children of educated women are more likely to go to school and, consequently, this has exponential positive effects on education and poverty reduction for generations to come.
“Educated women generally want smaller families and make better use of reproduce health and family planning information and services in achieving their desired family size,” she said.
Earlier, Chairperson of Womenhood Foundation of Nigeria, Hajiya Maryam Abubakar, tasked the graduands not to consider themselves to have arrived, but as being on a journey of service to humanity.
She enjoined the graduands to continually update themselves with knowledge in their fields to be useful to themselves and community, noting that education is a journey that only ends when we exit this world.
“We are all aware that education is the most powerful tool for fighting poverty, ignorance, disease and promoting and sustaining peaceful coexistence across our country. I hope that you will be our ambassadors in promoting peace wherever you find yourselves,” she admonished.
Hajiya Abubakar also informed the gathering that the Womenhood School of Health Sciences is accredited to train students on the following courses: Dental Health Technician/Assistant, Environment Health Technician/Assistant, Health Information Technician, Trained Birth Assistant and X-Ray Technician.
https://www.africaprimenews.com/2018/07/02/news/new-ngo-in-northern-nigeria-pledges-to-help-address-maternal-deaths/
